Musicians sparkle in duets

When pianist Christopher O’Riley and cellist Carter Brey play music together, they don’t just show off their talent and skill and insight. No, when these two masters get together in musical collaboration, as they did Sunday afternoon at the University of Maine’s Minsky Hall, they wail. Like two business partners hot on a job, O’Riley and Brey get their work done with nothing short of corporate energy. At Sunday’s concert, the result was a musical performance with nearly excruciating acuity and a superbly sheened spontaneity.

O’Riley and Brey, whose professional histories include studies at major training institutions and lists of outstanding awards, are the type of musicians from whom you expect roisterous surprises. They began with Bohuslav Martinu’s Sonata No. 1, a fine but not often heard piece that has all the dash of Dvorak and all the audacious sensuality of the modern period in which it was written.

Brey gave a breathiness to the Czech composer’s every note, which allowed the cellist to shine somewhat more brightly than the earnest O’Riley (who left after this concert to perform with James Galway at the White House today). But together, the musicians fired away at the Martinu with uncommon boldness, a quality that marked the entire concert and best describes the general aesthetic of this well-matched duo.

In performing Prokofiev’s Sonata in C Major, Opus 119, Brey and O’Riley played with balletic lyricism and had moments with both the earthiness of bird song and the power of a sailboat clipping through ocean waters. The second moment, in particular, showed off an understated comic ability, which had more than a few members of the audience chuckling.

Jorge Luis Gonzales’ “Confin Sur” was the most esoteric piece on the program — music more for musicians and intellectuals than for the average listener. It was filled with torment and virtuosity, and was handled with a brainy intensity.

The highlight of the concert was Brahms’ Sonata in E minor, Opus 38, which had a well-detailed, stirring volume to it. The partnership of Brey and O’Riley spread out the glory between cello and piano — an admirable balance considering the bulkiness of each part. There was a flutelike airiness to Brey and a physicality to O’Riley, but no moment was without muscularity of sound and intention. In a second encore, the duo smashingly reperformed a segment of the final movement, which they felt had fallen short of their capabilities in the first run. This encore gave as much credibility to their personal character as to their punch as musicians.

The first encore was one of those rare golden moments in which performers let go and show uncharacteristic charm and good spirits in an after-the-fact way. In this case, the encore was the second movement of Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk Style. The piece underscored the impressive coupling between Brey and O’Riley, whose smart approach to music and performance gives all the complexity of a full-bodied symphony and all the simplicity of a night among friends.